


period nine (nine)

by santiagoxbeesly



Category: Brooklyn Nine-Nine (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Marching Band, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/M, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-28
Updated: 2018-06-28
Packaged: 2019-05-29 16:22:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,632
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15077045
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/santiagoxbeesly/pseuds/santiagoxbeesly
Summary: Amy Santiago has been waiting to be drum major since middle school and everything is exactly as she had hoped it would be except for the fact that she has to do it alongside Jake Peralta, her self proclaimed rival and also the boy who has been annoying her since second grade. After a bet, the dynamic of their relationship starts to change and Amy starts to question if her junior year will go as she had planned.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> this is my second fic i've posted and this one is going to have multiple chapters. i've had this idea for a while now and i'm pretty excited about it!

Amy Santiago stood in the commons, smiling with delight as she watched new and old band members enter one by one. Today was the first day of mini band camp, which was the official start of the marching band season. This was her first year being a drum major. She had been hoping and waiting for this day to come since the seventh grade. Her thoughts of what this season could possibly hold were interrupted she heard the blare of a trumpet in her ear, making her jump. She looked to her right and as she had expected, saw Jake Peralta standing next to her with a big grin on his face.

 

"Why do you even have your trumpet? You're a drum major now" Amy said annoyed.

 

"So? I can still play sometimes if I want to Amy" Jake argued back.

 

Amy rolled her eyes at him. They had known each other since second grade, and he had also been annoying her since second grade. They both got super into the music program in fourth grade when they got to join band. Amy got the French horn, while Jake got the trumpet. They declared themselves rivals and strived to become the best in the band. Their rivalry got even more serious last year when they both went for the drum major position. In the end they both got a spot to Amy's disappointment and Jake's excitement, since it now made it easier for him to tease her. But there was nothing they could do about it now, they were going to have to cooperate for their two remaining years of high school. They were doing this along with their mutual friend Rosa Diaz who had also been given the position of drum major the previous year. Amy and Rosa's mothers had been church friends for years, and their daughters grew close from the hours of hanging out together at church related functions. According to Rosa, she had met Jake at a forensics summer program when they were kids. Rosa walked over to Amy, who had started wringing her hands together.

 

"Santiago, are you alright? Rosa asked.

 

"Yeah, yeah I'm fine. I'm just getting a little nervous, you know. This is such a big deal to me I just don't wanna screw it up"

 

"Amy, you have been preparing for this day since middle school. I know you'll be better than any drum major that this school has ever had and ever will have."

 

"Awww Rosa!" Amy said going over for a hug.

 

"Don't push it I didn't mean to get all sappy this early in the year" she said awkwardly accepting her hug.

 

"And also you're right, Rosa. I've been waiting for this day for so long. I've made five different binders over the past three years" Amy grinned bashfully.

 

"That's my girl" Rosa smiled.

 

A minute later, Mr. Holt, the marching band director and teacher of the schools wind ensemble, called for everyone's attention.

 

"Hello I am your director Mr. Holt and welcome to the 2018 marching band season." he said. Everyone started cheering loudly.

 

"I would like you all to meet your new drum majors, you now may all introduce yourselves." he said gesturing to them.

 

Amy stepped up first.

 

"Hi I'm Amy Santiago, I'm a junior and I am thrilled to be one of your drum majors. Being a drum major has always been a dream of mine-"

 

"Santiago please keep it brief" Holt interrupted.

 

"Right, sorry" Amy apologized.

 

"I had a small speech planned but that can just wait for another time so for now all I have to say is that I already know this year will be incredible. Also shoutout to the mellophones!" she continued.

 

Her section cheered for her, and Rosa stepped up next.

 

"Hello my name is Rosa Diaz, I am a senior and I play the bari sax."

 

There was a small woo from the four other bari saxes in the band.

 

"This is my second year being drum major and I know we are capable of making this year even better than last year so let's do it." Rosa stated.

 

Then it was Jakes turn, and a roar of cheering and applause started, mostly from the trumpets. Jake was quite popular among the marching band crowd, so this was an expected reaction. He took it all in, clearly loving the attention, bowing down to his peers. Amy rolled her eyes at his behavior but she could feel her lips curving into a slight smile. The clapping died down, giving Jake a chance to start introducing himself.

 

"Okay okay, well since everybody obviously knows who I am I'll introduce myself only for the freshmen's sake. I'm Jake Peralta, I'm a junior and I come from the best section there is" he said pointing at the trumpets.

 

"I am super pumped to be drum major and I guarantee that this season will be the best season yet!"

 

Everyone erupted into applause again, and Jake grinned over at Amy. She couldn't help but grin back.

**

The band headed outside to the football field to learn/review basic marching commands and how to march. This was all in preparation for the march off that would take place on the last day of mini band camp. The march off was an intense competition every year between all of the sections. Each sections’ task was to do a simple box step, forward eight steps, left eight steps, back eight steps, right eight steps and forward eight steps. Most sections added in a special touch to their routine such as getting a cheerleader from their section to do a back handspring or have their lines move in opposite direction. Everyone got super into it, and there was always a prize promised for the top three sections with the best routines.

 

Jake, Amy and Rosa watched as the section leaders directed the underclassmen by telling them their plans for the march off.

 

"Ah I remember doing that. Telling all those freshmen what to do." Rosa reminisced. Her section was small, and out of all of the other bari saxes she was the best candidate for section leader even though she was only a sophomore at the time.

 

"Me too" Jake said.

 

"You were never a section leader, Jake" she replied.

 

"I always told the freshman what to do. They practically worshipped me last year." he bragged.

 

"So who do you think is gonna win this year? We get to be apart of the decision now." Amy said joining in their conversation.

 

Amy watched as Jake scanned over the football field, observing each section.

 

"Well for starters the trumpets are going to come in first like they rightfully deserve"

 

"Sorry but the mellos are winning this year. Kylie told me what they have planned" Amy retorted back.

 

"Alright if you're so sure your section will win, let's make a bet" Jake said.

 

"What are you thinking?" she asked intrigued.

 

He thought for a second before a look of realization swept over his face.

 

"If the trumpets win section wars you have to go on a date with me." he said.

 

Amy froze. She felt slightly flustered at the mention of him taking her on a date.

 

"But a really bad one" he continued.

 

She felt relieved, but also slightly disappointed which confused her. She pushed these thoughts to the back of her mind.

 

"Okay deal, and if I win..." she trailed off, trying to think of an idea.

 

"For the rest of marching band season, you can't play your trumpet unless Mr. Holt or Mr. Jeffords say you have to"

 

She knew how much this would bother him. He practically always had that thing with him during band, in fact he was holding it in his hand as they spoke.

 

"It's a bet." he said shaking her hand.

**

It was time for the march off and the band had formed a huge circle around the football field. Jake stood in the center holding a microphone headset.

 

"Welcome to the Park Slope High School 2018 March Off!" he yelled.

 

Everyone cheered as Jake ran around the circle, high fiving everyone.

 

"First up we have the flutes!"

 

The section ran to the center of the circle and Amy held the gock block in her hand and banged a count of four with the drum stick, something she had secretly always wanted to do.

 

She kept hitting it at a steady beat as the flutes did their routine without any noticeable mistakes and finished it with a tumbler doing a cartwheel back-handspring. It was a good routine, but quite basic compared to what most sections usually planned.

 

Next up was the trombones, baritones & sousaphones and alto saxes. All did well, and then it was the mellophones turn. 

 

Their routine was near perfect, and they had even had the lines move in the opposite directions which was harder than it looked.

 

Amy grinned widely as she noticed a look of concern on Jake's face.

 

"What's wrong, Peralta? Are you worried that your section isn't good enough to beat mine?" she teased.

 

He scoffed. "No you should be worried that your section isn't good enough to beat mine!"

 

"Sad comeback" she said shaking her head. She could tell she was getting under his skin and it filled her with delight.

 

The rest of the sections went, leaving the trumpets to be the last one remaining.

 

Amy couldn't remember what exactly they did but all she knew was that it was really good. Like really, really good.

 

"Who's worried now?" Jake whispered into her ear. Amy slapped his arm.

 

The director and drum majors huddled in the center of the football field to discuss who they thought should be crowned the winner of this year's section wars. The directors had the ultimate power in deciding who would be the winners, but the drum majors were still allowed to make an input.

 

"Completely unbiased opinion but I think the trumpets routine was the best" Jake whispered as Amy rolled her eyes at him.

 

"Well I think that the trombones were really good their set was really clean, completely unbiased opinion" she said glaring at Jake.

 

"I have to agree with Mr. Peralta, their routine was quite immaculate." Holt said.

 

Jake grinned at Amy while she frowned in defeat. The drum majors continued to briefly discuss their thoughts before leaving the director to come to his final decision.

 

Everyone waited anxiously for the results.

 

"Alright I have chosen the top three winners" Holt announced.

 

"In third place, we have the clarinets"

 

The section jumped up from the ground and started cheering as Jake threw little cartons of bubbles at them, the prizes they had been promised earlier.

 

"Now in second place are... the mellophones!"

 

Amy had a brief moment of ecstasy with her section but it quickly faded once she realized that if the trumpets came in first, this would mean he would win their bet.

 

She noticed Jake looking over at her, smirking and mouthing the words, "You're toast"

 

"Now the section that has come in first place is..."

 

The percussion section started a drum roll while the rest of the band joined in, patting their legs.

 

"The trumpets!" Holt shouted.

 

The trumpets jumped up erupting into a cheer, blasting their horns loudly while Jake ran over to rejoice with them.

 

After a minute or so, Jake ran over to a very disappointed Amy.

 

"So are you free this Friday?" he smiled.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the first day of school!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> chapter two! sorry its shorter than the last one

Luckily for Amy, she was not free that Friday. That day she was leaving for a two week coding sleep-away camp she had signed up for. And the for the final remaining week of summer, Jake would be visiting his nana so they decided to push their date until after school started.

 

Speaking of school, Amy was now getting ready for her first day of junior year. She had put on a sensible salmon pink blouse, dark blue jeans and tan sandals. Her lightly curled hair was pulled back into a low ponytail. 

 

This was going to be the most stressful and difficult year of her high school school career. The eleventh grade was infamous for its amount of work. There were APs (which Amy was taking four of), the SAT and ACT, prom and starting to look at colleges. Her grades this year were what schools would be looking at so she had made a personal promise to herself that she wouldn't let her herself get distracted by anything or anyone and only focus on school.

 

No drama. No dating. Just school.

**

She arrived at Park Slope High School and headed off to her first class, AP Statistics. Her teacher seemed nice and she knew a couple of people in her class. One of the people was Teddy Wells, a guy she met at coding camp. He was also in marching band and the mellophone section. They had never talked much but started once they realized how much they had in common besides playing the French horn.

 

Next, she headed off to music theory. She had been waiting to take this class since freshman year and now she finally had room in her schedule. Her excitement was slightly tampered when she walked into the classroom and saw Jake sitting there.

 

"Hi Amy!" he waved.

 

He was sitting next to his friend Charles who she had known from when they did All County together last year. He was a grade above them and the head section leader of the clarinets. And from what she could tell he was really obsessed with Jake.

 

She looked around at the other people who were in the class and noticed everyone had split themselves up into groups of the orchestra kids, the chorus kids and a few stragglers who weren't in any of the school's music ensembles.

 

Amy begrudgingly sat down next to Jake and Charles, the only band kids in the room, and they were later joined by Rosa and her girlfriend Gina. Gina was in the same grade as Jake and Amy, and she was also a section leader but for the flute section, but she played the piccolo.

 

Rosa had once told her Gina and Jake had known each other basically since birth. Their apartments were across the hall from each other, and Jake's nana used to watch them after school while their mothers were at work. The three of them had been in some classes together over the years but her and Gina had always had a weird relationship where Gina would make fun of a lot of the stuff she did, but Amy could never tell if she was being satirical or not.

 

Jake had introduced Rosa and Gina to each other at the beginning of him and Gina's sophomore year. It wasn't even a month later when Amy caught them making out in their cabin at band camp after they had told her they were "skipping DJ night because the camp food gave them both a stomach ache."

 

"I thought you weren't taking music theory" Amy said to Rosa.

 

"I wasn't. But street law was filled and this was my backup class. Plus Gina is taking it" Rosa said giving a small smile to her girlfriend.

 

Then the bell rang, signifying the start of the class.

 

"Welcome everyone, I'm Mr. Jeffords. I know some of you may know me as the director of the symphonic band.”

 

Mr. Jeffords was the assistant marching band director, and he also taught music theory (obviously). He had missed mini band camp because he was on vacation with his family at the time.

 

"I will start class off by telling where you're right now will be your seat for the rest of the year so you better get comfortable."

 

Amy looked to her left at Rosa and then to her right at Jake.

 

"Hello desk partner" he grinned.

 

Amy groaned. Second period was definitely not going to end up being what she had hoped for.

**

The rest of her day went pretty well, her teachers and classes appeared to be good but she had been looking forward to ninth period the most. Ninth period was wind ensemble, more commonly known as band.

 

Due to the large enrollment in band, the band student population at Park Slope was broken up into three bands; the wind ensemble, the symphonic band and the freshman band. The wind ensemble was the highest ranking of the three, and Amy took pride in the fact that she was one of the few people from her grade who made it in freshman year.

 

She walked into the classroom that she hadn't been in since mini band camp at the beginning of August but instead of it being just Holt, Jake and Rosa with her, it now was filled with her peers. She was immediately greeted by her friends and instantly reminded of why this class had always been her favorite. It was where she felt like she belonged.

 

Amy put her backpack on the desk in the front of the room. It was an unspoken procedure for the drum majors to do during marching band season.

 

This is what they got to do from September to November. Conduct in front of the band and get to stand in the front of the room. The last thing was small, but it made Amy feel powerful.

 

"Hey" Amy heard from her left.

 

She saw Jake standing next to her.

 

"Hey how's your first day going?" she asked.

 

“Well my teachers mostly suck except for Holt and Jeffords of course"

 

Amy smiled and nodded.

 

She remembers when Holt started teaching at their school last year. He is so much different than their old teacher, Mr. McGintley. He was lazy, unmotivated and overall a terrible teacher. 

 

Jake, on the other hand, loved him. Mostly because he let him do basically whatever he wanted for the one year that he was their teacher. After he retired, Holt became the new director of the wind ensemble and marching band. Jake absolutely hated him at first, while Amy loved him. As the school year progressed, Jake grew to like him and the feeling became mutual. It became so mutual that Holt chose him to be a drum major.

 

"Alright everyone listen up" Holt's voice boomed. "Welcome to wind ensemble."

 

Jake let out a woop and Holt glanced at him disapprovingly before continuing.

 

"For the new students taking this course, you may think this is just concert band but I can assure you it is rigorous and intense, and I expect you all to behave like adults. Now on to the grading system. Your grade is based solely on participation. However, if you miss a marching band event or a concert, your grade will be lowered which should not be necessary since the only other thing you technically have to do to get a 100 in this course is show up to class everyday with your instrument, play and not be a distraction to your fellow peers. Fair enough?"

 

The class nodded slowly.

 

"The schedule for this year will go something like this. In two weeks, we will be going to Schur Summer Camp for four days and three nights where we will hold our annual band camp."

 

Everyone smiled and looked excitedly at each other. Amy was excited too. Band camp was one of her favorite parts of band, if not high school as a whole. Learning the marching band show for the year and getting to sleep in a cabin with her friends while enjoying a myriad of other activities was always the best weekend of the year.

 

"You have already received a packet in the mail that has disclosed all of the information you will need to know about the trip. You can meet with me privately to ask any additional questions. This year we will also have multiple football games throughout autumn, the dates of those games are also included in the packet. One of those games is homecoming which is when we will debut this year's show as you all know is titled 'No Place I'd Rather Be'. We are also going to be apart of the Brooklyn Times Marching Band Festival, like we are every year. Then marching band season will be over and we will move on to learning our music for the winter concert. After holiday break we will learn our music for the February concert and after that we will start preparing for the NYSSMA majors festival and spring concert.” Holt said. “That was quite a mouthful but if anyone has any questions about what we just discussed you may now raise your hand to do so.”

 

Hearing the itinerary for the year made Amy even more ready for her first season as drum major. She didn’t realize she was grinning until Jake commented on it.

 

“Amy you’re smiling like a crazy person” he whispered.

 

She hit Jake in the arm. “Leave me alone I’m just excited to finally be drum major” she whispered back. “Now be quiet people are asking questions.”

 

He was quiet for a few more minutes until the band started playing their first song, while Rosa conducted.

 

"Hey Amy?" Jake asked.

 

“What now?" Amy groaned.

 

"Woah you don't have to be so rude about it" Jake said, pretending to be offended. "I was just gonna say that I'm excited to be a drum major with you" he continued.

 

Amy gave him a small smile. She wasn't expecting him to say that. That may have been the nicest thing he had ever said to her.

 

"Thanks Jake. I'm pretty excited to be a drum major with you too.” 

 

She hadn’t realized it until that moment, but she genuinely meant what she said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for reading! please leave comments and kudos it makes my day! next chapter will be the date :)

**Author's Note:**

> thats the end of the first chapter! please leave kudos/comments! i have sort of written out the next two chapters and i already have planned the pretty much whole thing in my head so the next chapter should be up soon. i know im not the best writer but i hope you enjoyed!


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